Protest outside Olympia City Hall Friday night leads to arrests

Two arrests were made Friday night while a group of protesters was gathered outside Olympia City Hall blocking the Fourth Avenue and Cherry Street intersection.

According to Olympia Police spokesman Lt. Paul Lower, two men confronted the group and allegedly tried redirecting traffic before punches were thrown. Police then forced the crowd to disperse and arrests were eventually made.

At 9:30 p.m. Friday, Olympia Police stood blocks away from City Hall where protesters were blocking traffic. According to Lower, two men told officers they had been assaulted by a person in the protest group when they were trying to redirect traffic on Fourth Avenue. One of the men said he had been punched in the face multiple times resulting in a bloody lip and pointed out the person he alleged to have hit him.

But protesters in the group say when the two men approached, they were confrontational and were not concerned with traffic.

“They were there to argue with 20-year-olds,” said Miguel Louis, a 21-year-old protest organizer who lives in Olympia.

Louis said the man who accused a protester of assault flashed a gun while arguing with protesters. The arguing continued until the man pulled out the gun a second time, which resulted in him being punched in the face by a protester, according to Louis.

Officers did not engage the protester at the site of the incident and instead issued dispersal orders over loud speakers to get the crowd out of the intersection. When the initial commands were not immediately followed, officers and police vehicles formed a wall, spanning the two lanes of Fourth Avenue and began moving towards the group, announcing pepper spray and other substances may be used to disperse the crowd.

Protesters began heading east towards Plum Street. However, two protesters, one of whom was carrying a shield, remained in the intersection, Lower told The Olympian. As officers drew nearer, the person with the shield darted off, but their companion remained. Officers approached the remaining protester, a woman, and placed her under arrest on suspicion of failure to disperse. She was booked into the Olympia City Jail that night.

As the group of protesters headed east, officers noticed the protester who had been identified as the man who assaulted the two men earlier in the night. Officers approached the suspect about an hour after the assault was alleged to have happened, engaged him and then arrested him on one count of misdemeanor assault. The suspect, a 19-year-old man from Tacoma, cooperated with officers during his arrest, Lower said, and he was taken to the Olympia City Jail without incident.

The rest of the protesters continued marching through downtown, walking down Union, going to Percival Landing Park and eventually the city jail before splitting off and heading home, Louis said.

Olympia Police hope that anyone with video of the alleged assault will call their business line at 360-753-8300.

This story was originally published August 3, 2020 at 1:51 PM.